In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death in New York while, reportedly, about a dozen people were able to hear her screams. Her death became a cause celebre about the callousness of New Yorkers, though in reality they may not have realized what was going on.
On November 19, a 19-year-old man named Abraham Biggs posted online that he intended to kill himself, including a list of drugs he was taking, and in full view of a webcam while people watched, some of them expressing concern and some egging him on. How quickly anyone reported it is not clear, but it was 12 hours before police arrived, at which point he was dead. Similarly, this case is being used to demonstrate the callousness of the Internet.
(Incidentally, I don't mean to be making this blog All Internet Crime, All the Time. I just report it, you know?)
As with the Megan Meier case, there is a great deal of thundering about "Something must be done!" without any clear idea of just what should be done.
Suicide is a tragic waste of a life. I've been a member of online communities since the 1980s, and I've known a number of people who've committed suicide, some acting in ways that telegraphed it, though none declared their intentions online before the act nor conducted it online.
The problem is that it's not always easy to tell when someone's serious, and Biggs had reportedly threatened suicide before. Suicide prevention advocates say any threat should be taken seriously, but do we really want to set up a culture where anyone online can call in a suicide report on someone else?
In particular, do we *want* to set up that expectation or, even further, legislation? There is already some talk about finding a way to charge the witnesses to Biggs' suicide. "It is not against the law to fail to stop a suicide in most states, although a few do outlaw people advising someone else to commit suicide," said one website. "Also, it is well established that Web sites cannot be liable for illegal activity that takes place on their domain unless they are notified specifically about it. On the other hand, it may be that officials will find an existing piece of legislation that can form the basis of a prosecution, much as attorneys have done with the current prosecution of Lori Drew," the perp in the Meier case.
And where would such legislation stop? What other crimes might become reportable by virtue of being seen on the Internet? If Facebook friends see pictures of a party that had underage drinking, will they become liable for not reporting it?
Like Kitty Genovese, any rescue of Biggs was hampered by a human tendency to assume that someone else was taking care of a problem. In CPR class, they tell you, "Don't say, 'Someone call 911!' Say, 'You, there! Call 911!'" because otherwise everyone will just stand around.
Apparently, Biggs' suicide isn't the first to happen online; in this culture where something doesn't exist unless it happens online, it's unlikely to be the last.